PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY, 



HUMAN NATURE: 



THE EVOLUTION OE MIND AND ITS 
INSTRUMENTS. 



BY / 

J. STANLEY GRIMES, 

AUTHOR OF "PROBLEMS OF CREATION" AND "MYSTERIES OF THE HEAD AND HEART.' 






iladelphia: 



p] 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
1893. 

V 



•Get 



Copyright, 1S92, 

BY 

J. Stanley Grimes 



Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 



/ 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Section I. — Introduction 5 

II. — Evolution of the Mind and its Instruments 16 

III.— Origin of Brains 19 

IV.— The Triserial Evolution of the Mental 

Organs ....... 24 

V. — The Central Organ of Consciousness and 

Will ....... 33 

VI.— Moral Physiology and the Tri-Potent Will 36 
VII. — The Kelations of the Propensities and the 

Heart to each other 39 

VIII.— Ordinary Sleep ...... 42 

IX. — The Machinery of Man .... 45 

X.— Playfulness 49 

XI. — Unbalanced Brains 52 

XII. — Mesmerism and Hypnotism ... 55 

XIII.— Alcoholism 60 

XIV. — Mind-Cures and Christian Science . . 64 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 



SECTION I. 

INTRODUCTION. 



The world is in great need of a reliable science of 
human nature. This want is especially felt by the clergy, 
the educators, the lawyers, and the physicians. The 
so-called sciences of psychology, phrenology, and physi- 
ology, as hitherto understood, are merely so many frag- 
ments of a science of mind. It requires but little sagacity 
to discover that some essential parts are wanting. This 
essay is designed to supply the missing links that are 
needed to form a complete chain. It must, however, 
be regarded by the reader as merely an outline and 
abstract of subjects the full discussion and illustration 
of which would require a very large volume. 

One of the main principles insisted on in this essay is 
that all mental operations are dependent upon material 
organs, and that to understand the mind and its mani- 
festations we must become acquainted with the machinery 
by which its functions are performed. 

The almost universal belief that the mind is an im- 
material spirit is neither sanctioned by science nor by 
the Bible. It originated before science was born, among 



6 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

half-civilized people, and when all natural phenomena 
not understood were ascribed to invisible and capricious 
gods or spirits. 

Three hundred years before Christ, Aristotle wrote 
the first treatise on the mind. As he knew nothing of 
the uses of the nerves or the brain, he was forced to 
draw all his knowledge of the mind from his own 
internal consciousness, which he assumed to be a spirit. 
His system and method, with unessential modifications,' 
has been taught, under the names of psychology and 
mental philosophy, more than a thousand years, in all 
our higher institutions of learning. It is a science of 
the mind with the organs of the mind left out. 

We might with as much propriety pretend to have 
a science of the functions of the body founded upon our 
sensations alone, and the bodily organs left out. In- 
deed, that is all that the world had until very lately. It 
is only within the last two hundred years that physicians 
have had a science of physiology that was of any prac- 
tical use. Even now they are utterly destitute of a 
physiology of mind. One hundred years ago no one but 
Dr. Gall suspected that insanity was a disease, or that 
idiocy was caused by defects of the brain. A maniac was 
regarded as a person who was " possessed" by an evil or 
malicious spirit that had ousted the lawful mind. In- 
stead of a physician, a priest was summoned to sprinkle 
the patient with holy water, and to command the demon, 
in the name of the Trinity, to depart. Hysteria and 
other diseases, which we now know to be of the nature 
of mesmerism and hypnotism, were attributed to witch- 



PHKENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 7 

craft. Tens of thousands of innocent Christian people 
were burned to death for bewitching their neighbors. 

In New England, Cotton Mather, a graduate of Har- 
vard, and a really pious divine, sanctioned the execution 
of several citizens for witchcraft. Lord Chief Justice 
Hale, one of the ablest and purest judges of England, 
condemned several old women to be burned to death for 
the same offence. It was only with the greatest difficulty 
that Kepler, the celebrated astronomer, prevented his 
mother from being executed as a witch. Modern spirit- 
ism, which has run like wild-fire through all Christen- 
dom, was the same delusion in a different form. It had 
its beginning at my lectures in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 
1843. Among the persons who attended and became 
mesmerized was Andrew Jackson Davis. He and his 
friends asserted that he was influenced and inspired by 
spirits. It was in vain that I protested against their 
folly. They went to New York City, where in 1848 
they were joined by the Fox girls. The only thing 
wonderful in the whole matter was the boundless cre- 
dulity of the thousands who believed that they commu- 
nicated with spirits. 

Among the converts were some men of distinguished 
ability and learning, — judges, philosophers, and clergy- 
men, — including Professor Hare, Robert Owen, Robert 
Dale Owen, Rev. John Pierpont, Judge Edmonds, and 
Professors Wallace and Crooks, of England. 

I became greatly interested in the phenomena of mes- 
merism and spiritism, for the reason that they demon- 
strated the utter ignorance of philosophers concerning 



8 PH RENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

the mechanism of mind. They assumed that mental 
forces are entirely distinct from all the physical forces. 
This unphilosophical idea is assumed, if not asserted, to 
be true in all the systems of mental philosophy used in 
our universities. Even when psychologists introduce 
some of the facts lately discovered by physiologists, they 
represent them as of secondary importance, and as sub- 
servient to the immaterial spirit. In England, Drs. 
Carpenter, Kirk, and Paget, though learned and emi- 
nent physiologists, have insisted that the higher powers 
of the mind are independent of all bodily organs. 

It is possible that they made these concessions from 
deference to the overwhelming theological authorities by 
which they were surrounded. But it is an interesting 
fact that neither the Old nor the New Testament sanc- 
tions this opinion. The Bible in no instance represents 
the mind of the individual as separate from his body. 
In the resurrection of Lazarus, of Christ, and of the 
saints during the crucifixion, the bodies were raised 
along with the minds. 

The early Christians borrowed and adopted the theory 
of immaterial spirits from the heathen Greeks and the 
Orientals; they did not derive it from their own sacred 
Scriptures. It is now an established scientific fact that 
no force exists separate from matter. No force in any 
form can pass through an empty space, however narrow. 
Mental force is no exception to this law. It can exist 
only in material bodies, and can pass from one place 
or thing to another only through or by means of some 
intervening body. 



PHKENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 9 

In 1786, Dr. F. J. Gall, an Austrian physician, an- 
nounced, in Vienna, that he had discovered a large 
number of mental organs in the brain. He thus became 
the father of mental physiology. No one had pre- 
viously taught that the faculties of the mind have ma- 
terial organs, or that the brain is the instrument of the 
mind. The Austrian clergy complained to the em- 
peror, and procured a decree that prevented Dr. Gall 
from lecturing or otherwise publishing his discoveries. 

In 1807 he settled in Paris, and although, under 
Napoleon, he was allowed to publish and advocate his 
doctrines, the influences of the government, the acad- 
smy, and the church were all against him. He made 
2on verts of some of the physicians, but he died in 1828 
without his merits being acknowledged by any learned 
institution. 

Spurzheim, who was the pupil and for a time the 
partner of Gall, improved his nomenclature, and added 
several newly-discovered organs, the most important of 
which were Hope and Justice or Conscientiousness, but 
be did not otherwise essentially advance the new science. 
Grail and Spurzheim discovered the locations and func- 
:ions of nearly all the organs now recognized, but they 
lid no more. They left the science in a crude and 
imperfect condition. It was like astronomy before the 
discovery of the law of gravitation. 

I commenced the study of the subject in 1832, when 
Spurzheim closed his earthly career in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts. 

During the sixty years that have passed since then I 



10 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

have succeeded, by continual investigation, in making 
the following additions : 

1. My first advance was the discovery that the men- 
tal organs in the brains of animals and of man are 
evolved in three series from the body, and that they 
are arranged in each series in the order of their creation, 
— the intellectual series in the forehead, the ipseal or 
selfish series on the side of the head, and the social 
series on the back and crown of the head. 

To appreciate this classification it should be compared 
with the classifications of Spurzheim, Combe, and the 
other phrenologists, from which it differs in being 
nature's own division and arrangement. 

2. The second advance was the discovery that the 
mental organs at the base of the brain are arranged 
from the anterior to the posterior, in the same order and 
relative positions as are the organs of the body which 
they represent. 

3. The third advance was the suggestion that the 
mental organs of many of the lower animals are en- 
closed in the nerves of sensation, and that when the 
higher animals were created the mental organs were 
transferred to the skull to form the brain. 

4. The fourth advance was that there is a single cen- 
tral organ of consciousness and will located in the ob- 
longata, at the base of the brain, and that all the mental 
organs and nerves of sensation converge to this centre 
to produce consciousness, will, and voluntary motion. 

5. The fifth advance was the discovery that each pro- 
pensity, whether an ipseal or a social, is either an im- 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 11 

pulsive force or a restrictive force, and that the will is 
in all cases composed of three forces, — an impulsive, a 
restrictive, and a directive. These three must combine 
;o produce a voluntary act. 

6. The sixth was that when any propensity is excited 
t acts on the heart and arteries and varies the circula- 
;ion. An impulsive, when excited, increases the circu- 
lation, and a restrictive, when excited, moderates it. 
rhe intellect does not vary the circulation. 

7. The seventh was that ordinary sleep is an econom- 
ical provision, instituted in the interest of the digestive 
system, to prevent the unnecessary expenditure of nour- 
shment. 

8. The eighth was that mesmerism or hypnotism is 
i half sleeping and dreaming state of mind, caused by 
;he conforming restrictive propensities when they are so 
nuch excited as to unbalance the brain and moderate 
Its circulation. 

9. The ninth was that alcohol poisons and paralyzes 
;he restrictive moral propensities and their nerves, and 
lets loose the impulsives to act without restraint. 

10. The tenth was that mind-cures are produced by 
mpressions on the conforming organs of persons who 
ire suffering from imaginary diseases, or whose minds 
ixaggerate their ails. 

The critical reader will discover that the most impor- 
ant discoveries which I have made in mental science are : 

1. That there are three series of mental organs, 
evolved from the body and related to it in function : 
;hey are the ipseal, the social, and the intellectual. 



12 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

2. That the same organs represent three classes of moral 
forces, — the impulsive, the restrictive, and the directive. 

3. That there is a central organ of consciousness and 
will, to which all the mental organs and all the nerves 
of sensation converge. 

4. That the impulsives increase the action of the heart 
and arteries, and that the restrictives diminish the action. 

All my other discoveries relating to mesmerism, 
hypnotism, spiritism, and alcoholism were the natural 
offspring of the first four. When the normal functions 
were known it was easy to discover the effects of their 
derangements. 

The reader will naturally inquire how it happened 
that I made these advances in mental science, while 
others, who appear to have had equal advantages, have 
made none. Perhaps it will seem less remarkable when 
it is known that I have devoted sixty years to the subject, 
without the slightest regard to pecuniary considerations. 
It may also be stated that my first discovery pointed the 
way and led me to the others, just as the discovery of 
part of the skeleton of an unknown animal suggests the 
existence of the other parts. In 1832, when Spurzheim 
died in my native city of Boston, after having been in 
the country only three months, the agitation of the sub- 
ject led me to investigate his system of phrenology. 

It was not long before I satisfied myself, by examin- 
ing a large number of crania, that nearly all the mental 
organs announced by Gall and Spurzheim actually ex- 
isted. I also found, after a careful analysis, that as a 
scientific system phrenology was defective. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 13 

The division of the organs by Spurzheim into animal 
propensities and moral sentiments was arbitrary and 
artificial, and the functions of some of the organs were 
improperly defined. After a thorough study, I dis- 
covered that the organs are evolved from the base of 
the brain in three series, which I named the ipseals, 
socials, and intellectuals. In 1838 I published a 
" New System of Phrenology." After a violent con- 
troversy among the phrenological authors and lecturers, 
the subject was referred to the Phrenological Society of 
Albany, N. Y. The Hon. Rufus W. Peckham, now one 
of the judges of the Supreme Court, was the attorney- 
general of New York. He was chairman of the meeting 
of members that was called to consider the matter. By 
his casting vote he decided that a committee of seven 
should be appointed to examine the new system and 
report to the society. Professor E. N. Horsford (now 
of Cambridge, Mass.) then resided in Albany and was 
made chairman of the committee. After keeping the 
matter before them for six weeks, the committee re- 
ported unanimously in favor of the new system. Mr. 
O. S. Fowlerj who was ambitious to occupy the highest 
place as the successor of Spurzheim, was the editor 
and proprietor of a Phrenological Journal. He had a 
long article published in his journal against the new 
system. But when the society adopted Horsford's re- 
port and ordered it to be printed, he refused to allow it 
to be published in the journal. This was in 1840, and 
during all these years I have had nothing to do with 
the journal nor with the various practical phrenologists 
2 



14 PHEENO- PHYSIOLOGY. 

who have travelled from New York through the coun- 
try. Although they have not advanced the science, nor 
done anything to make it more acceptable to the higher 
classes of scholars, they have done a great deal to con- 
vince the people generally that phrenology has a basis 
in truth, and in this manner they have opened the way 
for the introduction of a more perfect system. 

The study of the three series of mental organs nat- 
urally suggested the theory that the lowest organs of 
each series were created first, and the highest last. 

In 1850 I published in Boston a volume entitled 
" Phreno-Geology," in which I endeavored to prove that 
mental organs were evolved and added one after another 
as the continents rose higher, and thus, by presenting 
new scenery and producing new conditions, rendered 
new faculties necessary. In that book I advocated the 
same principles that Mr. Charles Darwin published 
eight years afterwards. It was the first essay ever pub- 
lished on theistic evolution. It was received in New 
England with the greatest disfavor by all parties. The 
sceptics objected to it for the reason that it recognized 
the existence of a personal creator, and the Puritans be- 
cause I denied that the creation was accomplished in six 
literal clays. Thirty years afterwards I had a new edi- 
tion printed from the same stereotype plates in Chicago, 
under the title of " The Problems of Creation," nearly 
all of which was destroyed by a fire. But the stereo- 
type plates were saved, and are now in the vault of 
the Lakeside Printing Company of R. R. Donnelly & 
Sons, Chicago. 



PHEENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 15 

While examining and comparing the brains and ner- 
vous systems of animals, to learn the manner in which 
mental organs were evolved, I discovered that in all ani- 
mals that have nerves there is a central organ of con- 
sciousness and will. 

In animals that have brains this central organ is in 
the oblongata, the part that connects the brain with the 
spinal cord. 

In 1838, after I had published the " New System of 
Phrenology," I witnessed for the first time some experi- 
ments in mesmerism, and I at once suspected that mes- 
merism was in some way connected with phrenology. 
I reasoned thus : phrenology is certainly true, and should 
therefore furnish explanations of all the phenomena of 
mind. But here is a wonderful manifestation that all 
the sciences fail to reach. Phrenology is therefore still 
imperfect, or it would explain mesmerism. After sev- 
eral years of further study and experimenting I ascer- 
tained that all the propensities are either impulsives or 
restrictives, and that three of the conforming propensi- 
ties are restrictives. When those three were excited by 
the mesmeric process they checked the circulation of the 
blood to such a degree as to produce a kind of emotional 
sleep or hypnotism. They also produced coldness of 
the hands, tremulousness of the body, and frequency of 
the pulse. The reader will now perceive that my first 
discovery (of the tri-serial evolution of the mental 
organs) led me on step by step, until I succeeded in 
solving all the mysteries of mesmerism, hypnotism, 
alcoholism, and mind-cures. 



16 PHRENO- PHYSIOLOGY. 



SECTION II. 

EVOLUTION OF THE MIND AND ITS INSTRUMENTS. 

In another essay entitled " Kosmonomia" I have sug- 
gested the theory that assimilation was the first function 
performed by nature in the creation of worlds. It is 
certainly the first performed by all organized beings. 
The crystal, which is beautifully organized, asssimilates 
materials until it grows to a certain size, and any surplus 
material goes to form other crystals. We may assume 
that the lowest and simplest organisms were created 
first. Plants differ from crystals in receiving their 
nourishing materials internally, and assimilating them 
there. The surplus materials are also assimilated inter- 
nally, and are then excluded in the form of new-born 
plants. This internal process in plants and animals 
causes the offspring to inherit all the peculiarities of 
the parent. The law of heredity was thus enacted at 
the very beginning of organic creation. It is a question 
how far organic progress would have been possible 
without this hereditary principle. 

The simplest and first created plants and animals do 
not seem to differ in sex. The evolution of sex did not 
occur until a second stage of organic creation. The 
higher plants are male and female. The difference of 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 17 

sex doubtless existed in a latent condition in the first 
created plants and animals, but the visible forms that 
distinguish the sexes were not yet evolved. It appears 
to be a universal law, that if a single mass or organ is 
forced to perform two different functions it tends to 
divide into two parts, one of the parts performing one 
function and the other part a different function. This 
is the key to many of the facts in evolution, especially 
the evolution of the human brain. 

Plants needed air, light, water, and sexual mates, and 
if what they wanted did not come in contact with them 
they perished. In what we will term the third stage of 
organic progress, mind was evolved. Some plants became 
conscious of "their wants, and also of the existence and lo- 
cation externally of the things wanted. At the same time 
they could move some of their parts to gain what they 
perceived that they wanted. These additional endow- 
ments changed some plants to animals that had the very 
same wants as plants, and no others. They were merely 
conscious moving plants ; though by their movements 
they proved that they possessed some degree of mind, they 
had no visible mental organs. The amoeba, or jelly-fish, 
is an example of this kind of organless animals, that move 
in such a manner as to prove that they are conscious. 

In what we will term the fourth stage of organic 
progress a mental and motor apparatus was evolved, the 
simplicity of which is admirable and instructive. Let 
us describe it. 

1. There is a small central mass of nerve-matter that 
serves as an organ of consciousness and will. 
b 2* 



18 PHKENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

2. There are nerve-cords that extend like telegraph- 
wires from the bodily organs that are in want to the 
central phrene, or organ of consciousness and will, to 
make the wants known there, and to impel to a move- 
ment to obtain what is wanted. 

3. There are nerve-cords that extend from the exter- 
nal senses to the conscious centre, to give information of 
the external existence of the things wanted. 

4. There are nerve-cords that extend from the central 
organ of consciousness and will to the limbs and mus- 
cles, to transmit the force that produces the voluntary 
motions required to gain what is wanted, or to avoid 
that which appears to be injurious. 

This is all the mental mechanism that the lowest 
animals possess. There are no brains or other visible 
mental organs. More than ninety-nine in a hundred 
of the animals in the world are brainless. They have 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 1 9 



SECTION III. 

ORIGIN OF BRAINS. 

The animals that have brains, the vertebrates, are 
included in four classes, — fishes, reptiles, birds, and 
mammals. 

There is a general opinion that animals with brains 
are mentally superior to those that are brainless. But 
there are many animals without brains — bees, ants, 
spiders — that manifest more mentality than oxen, sheep, 
or whales, that have them large. The theory that seems 
most reasonable, in view of all the facts, is that the 
nerves of sensation, which are all really mental organs, 
though of the lowest rank, contain, inclosed and con- 
cealed, a number of special mental organs that perform 
for the brainless animals the same functions that brains 
do for the animals that possess them.* It thus appears 
that mental organs were not first made in brains, but in 
nerves of sensation in the invertebrates, and that in the 
higher animals, created afterwards, they were transferred 
from the nerves and the body to the skull, and collected 
there to form the brain. This theory is confirmed by 

* There are good reasons for believing that the intellect was evolved 
from the external senses ; the ipseals from the pneurnogastric 
nerve ; the socials from the spinal cord. 



20 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

the fact that the lowest vertebrated animals, fishes and 
reptiles, have very large ganglia, or swellings on their 
nerves of sensation, but none on the nerves of motion. 
In higher animals these ganglia become smaller and 
smaller as brains become larger, until in man they are 
insignificant. This fact indicates that the transfer of 
the mental organs from the body to the brain was grad- 
ual, and was not completed until the human brain was 
developed. It may be added that the lowest vertebrates, 
especially reptiles, manifest something very much like 
the lingering remains of mentality when their heads 
have been cut off; but the higher animals and man, 
when the brain is destroyed, exhibit no such symptoms. 
This theory is further confirmed by the fact that some 
other functions and organs are transferred in a similar 
manner. For example : insects respire by means of 
pores in the skin, but in higher animals the respiratory 
organs are collected in the chest and form the lungs. 

CORRESPONDENCE OP POSITIONS. 

There is a remarkable correspondence of the relative 
positions of the mental organs at the base of the brain 
with the organs of the body. The mental organs at the 
base of the anterior lobe of the brain correspond in 
function with the external senses that are located in 
the head, the anterior part of the body. The mental 
organs at the base of the middle lobes of the brain 
correspond in function with the digestive organs that 
are located in the middle of the body. The mental 
organs at the base of the posterior lobe of the brain 



PHRENO- PHYSIOLOGY. 21 

correspond in function with the organs of the body in 
the posterior (in man the lowest) part of the body, that 
are related to offspring. This remarkable correspond- 
ence harmonizes with the theory that the mental or- 
gans were created first in the body in the lowest animals, 
and were afterwards transferred to the brain, retaining 
the same relative positions in all their stages, — in the 
oblongata, in the striatum, in the thalamus, in the cere- 
bellum, and in the cerebral lobes. 

This correspondence aids, in doubtful cases, in learn- 
ing the functions of the parts at the base of the brain. 
I regard the bodily organs, the oblongata, the ganglia 
at the base of the brain, and the cerebral lobes as so 
many different stages of development of the same func- 
tions and organs. The mental organs may be compared 
to three trees that have their roots in the bodily organs, 
and their highest branches in the upper parts of the 
brain.* 

INVOLUTION AND SEEDS. 

The word evolution, when applied to organisms, im- 
plies expansion and extension, or putting forth. Involu- 

* Two German physiologists, Freitz and Nitzig, have succeeded 
in exciting different parts of the brains of animals by means of 
electricity. These experiments have been repeated by Dr. Ferrier 
of London, and by Dr. Flint of New York. They have shed no 
light on mental science, but they have demonstrated the fact first 
announced by Gall, that different parts of the brain perform differ- 
ent functions. I am confident that means will yet be found to 
excite all the organs of the human brain and demonstrate their 
functions. When this can be done, insanity will be deprived of 
more than half its terrors, and mental physiology be perfected. 



22 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

tion, on the contrary, implies condensation, contraction, 
and coiling inward. There is truth in the saying that 
the acorn contains the whole oak. It is said that all 
organisms come from seeds or eggs. But the very lowest 
and first-created organisms do not produce seeds. They 
reproduce by merely repeating themselves. One grows 
and another grows out of it without the intervention of 
any seed. When a plant that produces seeds becomes 
mature, its extreme parts, instead of extending farther, 
become contracted more and more, and coil in on them- 
selves so as to occupy the least possible space. A seed 
contains all the essential parts or elements of the parent, 
so that, when placed where the conditions are favorable, 
it can evolve organs by means of stimulus and nutrition. 
This law holds good in animals and men. Each indi- 
vidual grows to maturity, and then the surplus material 
concentrates and recoils and forms seeds. 

It seems that every part of the parent sends represen- 
tatives of itself to form each seed. This is proved by 
the fact that each part of the offspring resembles the 
corresponding part in the parent and in both parents. 
The mulatto resembles both the black and the white 
parent. 

The organs of plants expand and evolve in the spring 
and summer, and their extremities coil up in autumn. 
Possibly the changes of the seasons were the primitive 
causes of the formation and concentration of seeds. The 
habit, being acquired and continued through thousands 
of generations, is now permanent. All of what we 
term nature is merely representative of the past. It is 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 23 

therefore only by means of natural history that we can 
really understand anything concerning the mind. It 
has grown by successive stages during an unknwn num- 
ber of generations. 

"We have another illustration of our theory in the fact 
that a disease of one part in the parent is transmitted to 
the same part in the offspring. This is true even in 
cases in which the disease was acquired by the parent 
after maturity. In cases of " marked" children the 
mental shock of the mother, on seeing a wounded or 
lame person or animal, is transmitted immediately to the 
offspring. This indicates that the mind of the mother 
causes a change in the same part of her own person, and 
that the change is transmitted from the mother to the 
corresponding part in the offspring. All these facts 
prove that the offspring are composed of the representa- 
tive parts of both parents. 



24 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 



SECTION IV. 

THE TEI-SERIAL EVOLUTION OF THE MENTAL OEGANS. 

The body performs three kinds of functions, an ip- 
seal, a social, and an intellectual, each of which has a 
local department of its own. The nutritive or ipseal 
department is in the middle of the body. The social 
department is in the lower (in animals the posterior) 
part of the body, and the intellectual department (the 
external senses) is in the anterior part of the body. In 
the brain, also, the ipseals are in the middle, the socials 
in the posterior, and the intellectuals in the anterior. 

The lowest and first-created organs of each series are 
located at the base of the brain, and each higher suc- 
ceeding organ is higher in rank and in the order of 
creation. 

The propensities, whether ipseal or social, are all of 
them either impulsives or restrict! ves. In the follow- 
ing catalogues the impulsives are printed in small capi- 
tals and the restrictives in italics. 

In studying the nature of any organ of the brain the 
question is whether it is an intellectual, an ipseal, or a 
social ; then whether it is an impulsive or a restrictive ; 
and, finally, what is its rank in its series. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 



25 




The ipseal propensities are in the side of the head, enclosed in 
double lines. The social propensities are in the back and crown 
of the head. The intellectual organs are in the forehead. 

The organs of Locality, Time, Tune, Form, and Size are left 
out of the following catalogue, for the reason that they are not 
fully proved. 



26 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 



INTELLECTUALS, in the forehead. 



Obs. — Observation. 
Wt.— Weight. 
C— Color. 
O.— Order. 

N. — Number. 



Words. — Language. 
Ev. — Eventuality. 
Com. — Comparison. 
Cau. — Causality. 



IPSEALS, in the side of the head. 



Al. — Alimentiveness. 
San. — Sanativeness. 
Des. — Destructiveness. 
Comb. — Combativeness. 
Sec. — Secretiveness. 
Caut. — Cautiousness. 



Con. — CONSTRUCTIVENESS. 

Acq. — Acquisitiveness. 
Exp. — Experimentiveness. 
Per. — Perfectiveness. 
H. — Hopefulness. 



SOCIALS, in the back and crown of the head. 

Em. — Firmness. 

Eqt. — Equity. 

Sub. — Submiss ivetiess. 



Am. — Amativeness. 
Pa. — Parentiveness. 
In. — Inhabitiveness. 
Ad. — Adhesiveness. 
Imp. — Imperativeness. 
App. — Approbativeness, 



K. — Kindness. 
Imt. — Imitativeness. 
Cre. — Credenciveness. 



THE IPSEAL OR SELFISH SERIES. 



THE CORPOREAL RANGE. 

1. Alimentiveness. — The propensity to obtain and 
appropriate food. Its activity is so much dependent on 
the condition of the body that it is only in extreme cases 
that any opinion can be given concerning it. I fre- 
quently find it large on caterers and restaurant-keepers. 

2. Sanativeness. — To avoid personal injury and dis- 
ease, and to be alarmed by slight symptoms and ails. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 27 

BELLIGERENT RANGE. 

3. Destructiveness. — The tiger propensity. It 
produces quick temper and a tendency to injure another 
by words or acts immediately. 

4. Combativeness. — The propensity to contend, dis- 
pute, controvert. 

PRUDENTIAL RANGE. 

5. Secretiveness. — To conceal intentions until a good 
opportunity presents. 

6. Cautiousness. — To endeavor to foresee difficulties, 
to hesitate, and avoid danger. 

INDUSTRIAL RANGE. 

7. Constructiveness. — To work with the hands in 
labor or mechanical business. It gives a love of the 
study of material things rather than things metaphys- 
ical. 

8. Acquisitiveness. — To accumulate property for 
future use. It gives a love of mercantile business. 

IMPROVING RANGE. 

9. Inventiveness or Experimentiveness. — Sometimes er- 
roneously called Mirthfulness. Tendency to try experi- 
ments or to do work in a new manner to save labor or 
to avoid difficulty. 

10. Ornateness, or Perfediveness, or Ideality. — The 
tendency to ornament or beautify work or speech or 
literary composition. 

1 1 . Hopefulness. — Tendency to act con fidently with 



28 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

reference to the future. To risk, to venture, or take 
chances. To be cheerful under depressing circumstances. 
It will be seen that these ipseal propensities do 
nothing directly for others, unless forced to do so by the 
dominating influence of one or more of the social pro- 
pensities. 

THE SOCIAL SERIES. 

DOMESTIC GROUP. 

I. Amativeness. — Sexual love. 

II. Parentiveness. — Parental love. 

III. Inhabitiveness. — Love of home. Incidentally it 
produces a disposition to continue to think and talk on 
a particular theme instead of rambling. 

IV. Adhesiveness. — Attachment and adhesion and de- 
pendence upon parents and friends, especially when 
young or weak and helpless. 

GOVERNING GROUP. 

V. Imperativeness. — To command, to govern, to 
assume superiority ; sometimes called Self-esteem. 

VI. Approbativeness. — Propensity to gain prefer- 
ence, applause, popularity. 

VII. Firmness. — Propensity to resist change and 
maintain a position once assumed in spite of persuasion 
or even self-interest. 

VIII. Justice, Equity. — Erroneously termed Consci- 
entiousness. Propensity to speak and act impartially 
and justly. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 29 

CONFORMING GROUP. 

IX. Submissiveness, Reverence, Veneration. — Propen- 
sity to submit, obey, respect, and conform to others, and 
admit their superiority. 

X. Kindness. — To be philanthropic and kind to all 
persons, and especially to strangers who have no claim 
on us. To extend acquaintance, and to be liberal and 
tolerant. 

XI. Imitativeness, Sympathy. — To conform to the 
manners of others and consider their feelings, and to 
sympathize with them. It gives a tendency to study 
the characters, feelings, and dispositions of others, and 
to study human nature in general. 

XII. Credeneiveness, or Wonder, or Marvellousness. — ■ 
To believe and to adopt the assertions of others, and 
assume that they are true. It gives a disposition to 
listen and learn from others, to read and to believe what 
is said or written. This valuable propensity is liable to 
very great abuses by producing a love of the wonderful 
and marvellous, and a tendency to superstition and men- 
tal slavery. Its proper function is to believe the truth 
and to learn from the experiences of others what we can- 
not learn otherwise. 

INTELLECTUAL OKGANS. 

Individuality. — Faculty of noticing things superficially and re- 
membering them. 

Form (?). — Memory of forms. 

Size (?). — Perception and memory of distances and dimensions. 
Weight. — Perception and memory of weight, resistance, force. 
Color. — Perception and memory of colors. 
3* 



30 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

Order. — Perception and memory of relative positions and ar- 
rangements. 

Number. — Perception and memory of numbers and combinations 
of numbers. 

Words. — Perception and memory of sounds tbat constitute 
words. 

Locality (?). — Perception and memory of directions. 

Eventuality. — Perception and memory of actions, events, stories. 

Tune (?). — Perception and memory of tunes. 

Tune (?). — Perception and memory of time. 

Comparison. — Perception and memory of resemblances and of 
differences. It gives discrimination and quick practical judgment 
to those who have had experience in any particular matter. 

Causality. — Perception and memory of connections and relations, 
and is an important element in philosophical reasoning. 

Order, Number, and Causality, when large, give the talent for 
reasoning and acting methodically and mathematically. Com- 
parison, Eventuality, and "Words give literary talent. 



PECULIARITIES OF THE INTELLECT. 

The intellectual organs differ from the ipseal and 
social propensities in several important particulars. 

1. They are the mere instruments and servants of the 
propensities. 

2. They originate no actions, and restrain none. 

3. They do not vary the circulation in the slightest 
degree. 

4. The external senses are really intellectual organs, 
though of the lowest rank. 

5. The intellectual organs of the brain are the only 
ones that produce memory. They produce it by repeat- 
ing in the conscious organ the impressions that had for- 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 31 

merly been received by them. They thus are able to 
guide the propensities by the light of past experience. 

6. The intellectual organs in the brain are evolved 
from the external senses. Many of the lower animals 
have no intellectual organs except the external senses 
and the faculties that are inclosed in them. 

One very important fact relating to the- intellectual 
organs is that, though they are numerous, they really 
constitute but one apparatus. They may be compared 
to a harp with many strings, that can only play one 
tune at once. The intellect is made to perceive things 
in the external world. The world is made up of many 
separate things. The intellect is so constituted that it 
can perceive only one thing and its properties at a time ; 
it can then notice another thing and its properties. 

The first and lowest organ of the intellect is Individu- 
ality, which is located externally where the nose joins 
the forehead. This faculty appears to notice merely 
that a thing exists. Dr. Gall named it the " Spirit of 
observation." Spurzheim named it Individuality. All 
that we really know is that when it is very small the 
person seems to be deficient in the faculty of noticing 
things, or remembering them. There are several or- 
gans that Gall and Spurzheim have located near Indi- 
viduality (Form, Size, and Locality) that I have not been 
able to verify by my examinations. Practically I com- 
bine Individuality, Form, Size, and Locality together,and 
call them " Observation." I do not deny the sepa- 
rate existence of these organs, but I leave it to future 
examiners to verify or reject them. I would make the 



32 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

same remark concerning Tune and Time. I cannot, 
when making examinations, venture to express any opin- 
ion concerning either of them. The organ of Color is 
seldom large enough to be spoken of with confidence. 
When I make an examination there are but eight intel- 
lectual organs that I regard as reliable. They are Ob- 
servation, Weight, Words, Order, Number, Eventuality, 
Comparison, and Causality. I make these remarks in 
justice to beginners and amateurs. By heeding them 
they will be saved from a great deal of embarrassment. 
The imperfections of phrenology tend to prevent its 
acceptance by hypercritical sceptics. 

As a whole I regard the intellect as a single complex 
instrument that the propensities act upon and use, just 
as they use the hands, the muscles of the voice, and the 
limbs. In the books on mental philosophy, the intel- 
lect is regarded as the principal part of the mind ; 
whereas in truth, notwithstanding its great importance, 
it is secondary and subservient to the propensities ; just 
as a pilot is subservient and secondary to the commander 
of a steamship. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 33 



SECTION V. 

THE CENTRAL ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND WILL. 

That the mental centre is in the oblongata, the part 
that connects the spinal cord with the brain, is proved 
by the following facts. 

1. Animals that have no brains, but only nerves of 
sensation and motion, have a mental centre, which is 
evidently an organ of consciousness and will. 

2. There is only one vertebrate animal — a fish, the 
amphioxus — that has no brain. This creature has a 
medulla oblongata corresponding to that of man, to 
which nerves of sensation and of motion are attached, as 



addition they have a very small brain, a mere germ or 
bud of a brain, developed from the oblongata and lo- 
cated in the base of the skull. 

4. In all animals that have brains the nerves of sen- 
sation are attached to the oblongata, where they can 
produce consciousness by the impressions that they trans- 
mit. All the nerves of voluntary motion are connected 
with the oblongata. 

5. All the mental organs have fibres that converge 
to the oblongata, where they can produce their own pe- 



34 PHKENOPHYSIOLOGY. 

culiar states of consciousness, and from which they can 
impel to action or restrain or direct voluntary motions. 

6. All the nerves (vaso-motor) that transmit, from 
the brain to the heart and arteries, the influences of the 
emotions, are attached to the oblongata. 

7. By means of this mechanism we can understand 
why it is that, notwithstanding the great number of 
nerves of sensation and of mental organs, we have unity 
of mind, of consciousness, and of will, — E pluribus 
unum. 

8. It seems that we can recognize only one sensation, 
one thought, one emotion at one and the same instant. 

9. We can make only one effort of the will at once ; 
we can utter only one syllable at once. 

10. The mental centre is like a post-office window, 
where only one can be recognized and served at once, 
and where the various applicants must take their turns, 
though the most powerful or urgent may enforce a 
preference. 

11. The unity of consciousness and will is absolutely 
necessary to produce singleness, individuality, and per- 
sonality, such as we express by the words me and you 
and I. 

12. This addition to mental science brings the psy- 
chology so long taught in our colleges into harmony with 
phreno-physiology. 

13. The mechanism of the brain enables us to under- 
stand the nature of the will. It is the condition of the 
mind produced by the dominance of one propensity in the 
mental centre for the time being, but it is liable at any 



PHEENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 35 

instant to be overcome and supplanted, and the will 
changed by some other propensity. 

We cannot account for the origin of consciousness by 
the theory of evolution. We know of nothing previously 
existing from which it could have been derived or evolved. 
It cannot be accounted for on physiological, chemical, or 
mechanical principles. All we know is that it was wanted 
and it came. If it does not indicate the existence of God, 
surely nothing in nature does. We can form no con- 
ception of the origin of matter nor of potence or energy. 
We therefore assume that they always existed. But this 
is not true of mind or consciousness. There was a time 
when it did not exist in this world, and a time when it 
began to exist. The cause of a thing is in all cases 
something that existed previously. What existed pre- 
vious to consciousness that could have produced it ? 

The organ of consciousness, as far as we know, is 
entirely passive. Like a musical instrument, it must be 
acted upon before it can manifest itself. The nerves of 
sensation and the mental organs in the brain act upon 
the central organ and produce consciousness, and then 
send a force through the motor nerves to produce vol- 
untary motion. 

The consciousness or its material organ can do nothing. 
It can only be conscious of impressions. All the force 
of mind is generated from the blood, just as is the force 
of the body. Every function of the body and every 
function of the mind uses up blood and can do nothing 
without it. 



36 PHEENO-PIIYSIOLOGY. 



SECTION VI. 

MORAL PHYSIOLOGY AND THE TRI-POTENT WILL. 

There are two entirely distinct and different classifi- 
cations of the same mental organs, which must not be 
confounded together. One is the tri-serial, and the 
other the tri-potent. The one relates to the order in 
which the organs were created ; the other to the manner 
in which they act and combine to produce the will and 
voluntary actions. There are three different species of 
mental forces, — the impulsive, the restrictive, and the 
directive. If we refer to the catalogue of the mental 
organs, we perceive that some of the ipseals are impul- 
sives and others of them are restrictives. The same is 
true of the social class. 

An impulsive propensity represents one of our wants, 
and when excited produces a tendency to act with vigor 
to gain what is wanted. But it has no self-restraining 
power. It is blind and reckless when acting separately. 

A restrictive propensity has a tendency to restrain 
and limit the action of an excited impulsive. But it 
has no self-restraining nor self guiding power. In these 
respects it is like the impulsives. 

The intellect is the directive force. 

When an impulsive propensity becomes excited it 



PHEENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 37 

sends an impression to the conscious centre, and from 
that centre it notifies all the mental organs of its desire 
to act impulsively for a certain purpose. This rouses 
the intellect, and causes it to recollect and think and 
reason to find the best way to gain what the dominant 
impulsive requires. The restrictives that are most in- 
terested and opposed to the action are excited at the 
same time, and they also require the intellect to recol- 
lect and think and reason concerning the objections, 
difficulties, and dangers of the proposed movement. 

Any other propensities, impulsive or restrictive, that 
are interested in the matter send their impressions to the 
conscious centre to modify the action. The result of 
the conflict is the will. 

Every voluntary act calls into operation at least one 
impulsive, at least one restrictive, and the intellect, 
— one to impel, one to restrain and limit, and one to 
guide. The impulsives and restrictives balance and 
restrain each other, and generally prevent excesses, ex- 
cept in cases of extraordinary excitement or temptation. 

The impulsives are the main-springs of the mind. 
They are the causes of our noblest and of our worst 
deeds. When not properly guided by the knowledge 
acquired by the intellect, they act erroneously. When 
not properly restrained by enlightened restrictives they 
act excessively, and even viciously and criminally. 

When the restrictives are too large they tend to pro- 
duce a conservative and inefficient character. 

If any one propensity predominates in the conscious 
centre, it becomes the master of the will, and does not 
4 



38 PHKENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

allow any other propensity to interfere with its actions 
or purposes. If any other propensity acts, it must be 
in subordination and as an auxiliary to the master-pas- 
sion, even against its own natural tendency. Thus a 
wicked a man may be a hypocrite and " suit his face to 
all occasions." So also a naturally just and benevolent 
judge may be severe and even cruel. It often happens 
that a good man, under the influence of a powerful pas- 
sion, forces his higher faculties to aid in deceiving his 
acquaintances while he is doing wrong. 

Although the intellect does not directly produce or 
restrain actions, it does both indirectly by furnishing 
the ideas and impressions that stimulate the propensities. 
In this sense, " Knowledge is power." 

Memory is an important element of the mind. It 
is a repetition in the conscious centre of impressions 
formerly received. 

The impressions produced in consciousness by the 
intellect are termed thoughts, ideas, images, imagina- 
tions. Those produced by the propensities are termed 
feelings, emotions, and passions. When a propensity is 
excited it causes the intellect to have ideas to suit that 
propensity. 

Without consciousness there would be no memory, 
and without memory consciousness would be useless. 
Memory enables animals and men to avail themselves 
of past experience and to acquire knowledge to be used 
in future. 



PHRENO- PHYSIOLOGY. 39 



SECTION VII. 

THE RELATIONS OF THE PROPENSITIES AND THE 
HEART TO EACH OTHER. 

When Dr. Gall, in Paris, in 1807, asserted that the 
brain was the seat of all the mental faculties, including 
the passions and emotions as well as the intellect, he 
was opposed by the most eminent physiologists of Eu- 
rope. The heart was universally supposed to be the seat 
of the passions. The most distinguished physiologist 
then living was Bichat. He taught that the passions 
and emotions were located in the sympathetic nerve near 
the heart. No one but Gall located them in the brain. 
But Gall himself was only half right. It is true that 
the propensities are all located in the head, but they 
depend upon the heart for their efficiency. 

After I had discovered that all the propensities are 
either impulsive or restrictive, I ascertained that all 
the impulsives, when excited, telegraph to the heart and 
arteries to increase the circulation and thus give addi- 
tional strength, and enable the impulsives to do effec- 
tive work. But when a restrictive propensity is excited 
it telegraphs to the heart and arteries to diminish the 
circulation, and thus prevent the impulsives from acting 
excessively. The brain and the heart continually in- 



40 PHRESO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

fluence each other, and combine their forces to produce 
and modify voluntary motion and expression.* 

I was led to the discovery of the relations of the pro- 
pensities to the heart by observing the effects of mes- 
merism and alcoholism. I found that when a person 
was mesmerized even in a slight degree by the excite- 
ment of the conforming restrictives, his circulation 
decreased ; but when the restrictives were paralyzed by 
alcohol the circulation increased. It seems that the 
heart and the brain are only parts of a single apparatus, 
which usually act in harmony, but which are liable to 
become deranged and unbalanced by various causes. 

It is an interesting fact that the impulsives, when 

* When teaching a class in elocution in 1838 I discovered that the 
accent of speech is related to pulsation, and the pauses to respira- 
tion. "When the mind is perfectly free from all emotion, the num- 
ber of pulsations in a given time is the same as the number of 
accents. Both accent and pulsation are involuntary. The number 
of pauses in a given time is the same as the number of respirations, 
provided the emotions do not produce variation. "When we read 
fast we do not accent any ofiener than when we read slow, but we 
crowd more syllables in between two accents. Many words of one 
syllable are accented as if there were two syllables, thus : mower 
and more, bower and bore. The distinction between the impul- 
sive and the restrictive propensities is well illustrated by elocu- 
tion. When we utter any impulsive sentiment, the heart, the 
lungs, and the vocal organs feel the influence of the dominant 
mental organ, and change to suit the sentiment. When a re- 
strictive propensity — fear, grief, friendship, sympathy — is excited, 
the tone, the lungs, and the circulation vary instantly. These 
changes could not occur unless there were a perfect mechanism of 
nerves connecting the brain, the heart, the lungs, and the vocal 
organs. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 41 

excited, produce only pleasurable emotions, but the re- 
strictives produce depressing and unpleasant emotions. 
The digestive organs sympathize with the restrictives, 
and when diseased they often produce extreme depres- 
sion and anxiety. But diseases of the lungs frequently 
produce abnormal hopefulness. 

Some of the propensities produce such gentle effects 
upon the heart that we hesitate to decide whether they 
are impulsives or restrictives. Those propensities that 
produce the most sudden and vigorous actions produce 
the most decided changes in the heart. I have included 
Inventiveness, Ornateness, and Inhabitiveness among 
the restrictives for the reason that they produce moder- 
ation, hesitation, delay, and reflection. 



4* 



42 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 



SECTION VIII. 

ORDINARY SLEEP. 

Dr. Good, a celebrated medical author, who wrote 
about a hundred years ago, stated that he had never 
been able to find any physiological explanation of sleep. 
The universal opinion has been that sleep is necessary 
for recuperation. If I recollect aright, it was Liebig 
who asserted that we gain during eight hours' sleep the 
force that we expend during sixteen working hours. It 
is assumed that the organs while awake and active are 
incapable of receiving nourishment, and therefore sleep 
is necessary. If this theory were true, it would follow 
that those persons or animals that sleep the most would 
exert the most force while awake. But the contrary is 
the fact : those that sleep the most are the most indolent 
and inefficient when awake. Besides, it is not true that 
nutrition and recuperation cannot proceed when we are 
awake. A farmer will rise before the sun, eat a hearty 
breakfast, swing his scythe six hours, eat a hearty din- 
ner, mow six hours more, eat a hearty supper, then spend 
three hours more in doing chores, and go to bed with an 
empty stomach. His blood during all that time has 
been circulating through every organ of his body and 
his brain. It is unreasonable to suppose that any part 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 43 

of his constitution has failed to receive nourishment 
during all that time. 

The theory that I would propose to physiologists is 
that sleep is nature's method of economizing food. By 
sleeping one-third of the time we save nearly one-third 
of the food that we should require if we remained awake 
and active during twenty-four hours of every day. It 
is true that we are recuperated during sleep, for the 
reason that assimilation and nutrition proceed while 
voluntary action is suspended, so that no blood is used 
up by the brain or the limbs. 

The hibernating animals sustain this new theory. A 
bear goes to sleep in the autumn in a good condition, 
and comes forth in the spring lean and hungry ; he cer- 
tainly has not been recuperated. We learn from these 
facts the fundamental nature and the dominating power 
of the digestive system. It is the first part of the con- 
stitution of plants, animals, and man that is created, and 
everything superadded is subordinate to it. It is the 
main-spring upon which all else depends. By means of 
sleep it suspends the action of the mind and limbs one- 
third of the time. We are thus informed, in language 
plainer than words, that we do not need more than six- 
teen hours out of twenty-four to do all the work required 
of us. 

It is now known that sleep of all kinds is immediately 
produced by diminution of blood in the brain. Any 
organ, when deprived of blood, suspends its operations. 
The brain and mind are no exceptions to this law. It 
is known to physiologists that there are inhibitory 



44 PHKENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

nerves, the office of which is to moderate the circulation 
in any organ when necessary. Those nerves that produce 
sleep are doubtless branches of the great sympathetic. 
Their centre is probably near the digestive organs. It 
is certain that a derangement of those organs, especially 
in children, often has a powerful effect upon the brain. 
It sometimes produces idiocy, after causing a succession 
of convulsive fits that seem to be a kind of insane sleep. 
This important part of physiology needs further inves- 
tigation. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 45 



SECTION IX. 

THE MACHINERY OF MAN. 

Evehy machine is impelled by some power separate 
from itself. The brain of man is no exception to this 
law. The power of man, both of body and mind, is 
derived from the oxygen that he inhales. The oxygen 
comes in contact with the carbon of his food and is con- 
densed, and its expansive force set free ; this force or 
potence is converted into muscular force or mental force. 
The lungs furnish the oxygen, and the digestive system 
furnishes the carbon that unites with it and condenses 
it. Animals and men that inhale the most oxygen exert 
the most force. 

The mind or brain is just as much dependent upon 
the oxygen of the blood for its power as are the muscles. 
The force itself of the muscles or of the mind is in no 
respect different from that which moves a steam-engine, 
a planet, or a windmill. Force or potence is continu- 
ally leaving one thing and entering one or more other 
things. The things it leaves condense or contract, and 
the things it enters expand. All the force used by the 
body or the mind comes from the oxygen that is con- 
densed ; the oxygen of the blood that enters the brain 



46 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

becomes condensed there, and the force or potence that 
is set free produces voluntary motion. 

There are many nervous apparatuses in man, each of 
which has a centre. But only one nerve-centre has 
consciousness when impressed ; that one is located in the 
oblongata. The nerves that have no conscious centres 
are called involuntary. They diifer from the voluntary 
nerves in the fact that they are not guided by perception 
or thought, and they are limited and restricted to one par- 
ticular mode of action. They cannot vary their action 
to suit circumstances any more than a planet can. 

The conscious centre or phrene has three classes of 
mental organs that converge to it and impress it. The 
most important is the impulsive class. It represents our 
wants ; when one of them is excited it tends to act 
directly to obtain what is wanted. It has no discre- 
tion, and no self-directing or self-restraining power, any 
more than the involuntary nerves have. It produces a 
consciousness of want and a desire to obtain what is 
wanted, and it acts on the intellect and forces it to think 
and perceive the way to succeed. But neither conscious- 
ness nor intellect restrains it, however wrong may be its 
aims and actions. The third force, the restrictive, is 
excited at the same time, and produces a consciousness 
of the objections, difficulties, and dangers of the pro- 
posed impulsive act. It also excites the intellect to 
learn the circumstances and objections. The restrictives 
have the power to restrain, to moderate, or to modify 
the action. An insane person has one or more propen- 
sities, either an impulsive or a restrictive, that cannot 



PHEENO -PHYSIO LOGY. 47 

be restrained, and therefore acts rnadly. The common 
idea that the will is a single ruling power in the mind 
is absurd. It is single in its result, but that result is the 
conclusion of the action of the whole mental congress. 

The constitution of man may be likened to a steam- 
ship that has but one pilot (the intellect) and one set of 
wheels (the limbs and tongue), but twenty-five engineers 
and engines (impulsive and restrictive propensities). 
Only one of the twenty-five can command the ship and 
the pilot at one and the same time, and determine the 
course to be pursued during the time that he commands. 
If the pilot is stupid, or ignorant, or is misled by false 
information, there is continual danger of error and 
misfortune. If the engineer is a giant and a tyrant, he 
may disregard the remonstrances of the other engineers 
(propensities) and the advice of the pilot, and proceed 
reckless of the consequences. 

The history of man demonstrates that from the earliest 
times he has been taught falsehood, superstition, and 
vice. The most amiable traits of his natural character 
have been made the means of his degradation. Chil- 
dren are naturally conforming, imitative, credulous, and 
anxious to learn from those around them. They are 
hungry for knowledge and eager for action; but until 
nearly twenty they are the slaves of their accidental 
surroundings. Their language, manners, morals, religion, 
occupations, and habits are all imposed upon them with- 
out their choice and without their knowledge. When 
they reach the age of discretion their habits are fixed ; 
they are stupidly in love with their slavery, and con- 



48 PHKENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

tented with their ignorance. They find themselves sur- 
rounded by institutions, governments, customs, and 
superstitions that originated in past ages, and which 
have been long sustained by tradition and authority. 

All history, sacred and profane, proves that during 
the ages that preceded the discovery of America, man- 
kind were almost utterly ignorant of the natural sciences. 
Even now the learned philosophers in our universities 
are ignorant of the mechanism of their own minds. 
They profess to learn and teach the nature of the human 
mind by the same primitive method that savages use, 
and that is by the experiences of their own conscious- 
ness. There was a deep knowledge of human nature 
indicated by the lessons of the greatest of moral teachers. 
AVhen referring to little children, he said, "Of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." It was only after some of them 
had been depraved by falsehood and vicious training, 
that he denounced them as " Scribes and Pharisees, hyp- 
ocrites, that devour widows' houses." Ignorance, false 
teaching, and false training beget bad habits and bad 
customs, and these in turn beget bad institutions that 
continue to grow in power and corruption, until nothing 
less than a miracle or moral earthquake, like the French 
Revolution, can overthrow them. When we consider how 
ignorant man has been and is now of himself and his 
surroundings, it is not strange that he has acted as if 
totally depraved. Man is naturally a savage animal, but 
he is capable, when instructed and trained in accordance 
with scientific and Christian principles, of rising to the 
highest stage of intellectual and moral excellence. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 49 



SECTION X. 

PLAYFULNESS. 

The mental organs, when not exercised for useful 
purposes, tend to act spontaneously in play. Young 
animals and children, when not old enough to act use- 
fully, have all the propensities of adults, and they must 
exercise them in play or not at all. There are many 
manifestations of the mind that are commonly regarded 
as serious performances, which really spring from play- 
fulness. The pleasure derived from reading fictions, 
and even from the writing of them, is of this nature. 
The same is true of music. It plays the emotions and 
gives pleasure to many who know nothing of the rules 
of melody and harmony. Much of what artists term 
work is really a playful exercise. Play is opposed to 
useful labor. It demands variety, so that many facul- 
ties can obtain the pleasure of exercise. 

Literary men, artists, musicians, and even preachers 
dislike common profitable labor of all kinds, excepting 
that which exercises their minds pleasantly. Imagina- 
tion, which is by some regarded as a mental faculty, is in 
many cases merely the play of the propensities upon the 
iutellect, causing it to present a series of images or ideas 
pleasing to the dominant propensity. In this sense 
c d 5 



50 PHEENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

dreaming is a species of imagination or image-making. 
The creative imagination is the state of mind produced 
by the propensity of Experimentiveness or Inventive- 
ness. Each propensity forces the intellect to play and 
produce images or ideas to suit its desires. 

Play springs mostly from the impulsive propensities, 
which tend to produce energetic actions, and are liable 
to become excessive and irreverent, and to violate the 
rules of propriety. Nearly all religion is restrictive, 
and nearly all play is impulsive. The two are there- 
fore antagonistic. There is probably no mental organ 
specially related to play, to mirth or to wit. The organ 
of Experimentiveness or Inventiveness, when acting 
playfully upon the intellect, produces wit. It invents 
amusing expressions, just as it invents anything else, 
and when aided by a good literary intellect succeeds in 
exciting admiration. Mirthfulness depends principally 
upon hopefulness and health, and the absence of care 
and anxiety. There is no separate organ or faculty of 
mirthfulness or playfulness. 

IMAGINATION. 

There is no separate organ or faculty of imagination. 
When any propensity is excited it forces the intellect to 
act and create images in the conscious centre which are 
pleasing to that propensity. A hungry man imagines 
and dreams of a feast of good things; a lover imagines 
that his sweetheart smiles upon him like a lovely angel ; 
an inventor imagines a combination of instruments that 
never yet existed in reality. 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 51 

The play of any propensity upon the intellect may 
produce a succession of mental images which can be 
used by the philosopher, the novelist, the sensualist, or 
the madman. In a well-balanced mind the imagination 
can be used just as the memory or the reasoning power 
can. In unbalanced minds the imagination is the 
product of a propensity that is uncontrolled. 



52 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 



SECTION XL 

UNBALANCED BRAINS. 

In the preceding sections I have confined the discus- 
sion to the normal functions of the mental organs. A 
lack of knowledge concerning the healthful and proper 
operations of the mind has prevented physiologists from 
understanding mesmerism, spiritism, mind-cures, and 
alcoholism. 

As soon as Dr. Gall discovered that each mental 
faculty has a special mental organ, it was at once per- 
ceived by physicians that monomania was caused by 
the disease of one mental organ, while all the others 
were in a healthful condition. It was also perceived 
that the conduct of very peculiar and eccentric charac- 
ters resulted from some of the organs being very large 
or very small. But mesmerism and hallucination were 
still unexplained. 

DREAMING. 

Dreams result from the unbalancing of the brain. It 
is impossible to explain dreams without recognizing : 

1 . The fact that there are many separate mental organs, 
some of which may be awake while others are asleep. 

2. That there are three species of mental forces, — the 
impulsive, the restrictive, and the intellectual. 



PHRENO-PHVSIOLOGY. 53 

3. That the intellect is the slave and instrument of 
the dominant propensity, which plays upon it while 
other propensities are asleep, and forces it to dream on 
matters interesting to that propensity. 

The whole intellect may be perfectly awake while all 
but one or two of the propensities are asleep. The in- 
tellect can then perceive and remember and reason on 
any subject with quite as much accuracy as when the 
whole mind is awake, but it can only perceive and reason 
to please that one tyrant propensity. 

It should be remarked that the impulsives and re- 
strictives produce very different kinds of dreams. 
Nearly all our dreams seem to be produced by the re- 
strict ves. They naturally suggest difficulties, and they 
also naturally tend to favor sleep by diminishing the 
circulation, while the impulsives favor wakefulness by 
increasing the circulation. 

We seldom dream of good fortune, or of doing any- 
thing successfully that requires impulsive energy. Our 
dreams are in most cases concerning difficulties, obstacles, 
failures, troubles, and misfortunes. The restrictives do 
not impel to action, but to inaction. For this reason 
we keep the body still, though the intellect is busy in 
dreaming under the influence of the restrictives. Som- 
nambulists are probably under the influence of one or 
more of the impulsives. They dream of daing some- 
thing in earnest. They rise and walk and work and 
talk. They go without hesitation or fear into the most 
dangerous places. The impulsive propensities know no 
fear or restraint. 

5* 



54 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

If the somnambulist is suddenly wakened when in a 
dangerous place, his restrictives become dominant, and 
he is alarmed and falls helpless. 

The dreams that come true are, in most cases, of some 
difficulty or misfortune, for the reason that we seldom 
dream of anything else. 



PHRENO- PHYSIOLOGY. 55 



SECTION XII. 

MESMERISM AND HYPNOTISM. 

In order to understand all the phenomena of mesmer- 
ism and hypnotism it is necessary to become acquainted 
with the two classifications of the mental organs as 
explained in the preceding pages. According to the 
triserial classification the mental organs are divided into 
three grand divisions, — the ipseal, the social, and the 
intellectual. The social series is divided into three 
groups, — the domestic, the governing, and the conform- 
ing. The phenomena of mesmerism and hypnotism 
are produced by the extreme and abnormal excitement 
of the conforming group, especially by the three of 
them which are restrictives, — Submissiveness, Imita- 
tiveness, and Credenciveness. The conforming group 
are the antagonists of the governing group, especially of 
Imperativeness and Firmness. The tendency of the 
governors is to command and act independently ; the 
tendency of the conformers is to submit, obey, imitate, 
believe, and, in a word, conform. If I examine two 
persons, and on one I find the governors small and the 
conformers large, I do not hesitate to say at once that 
the one with the larger conformers and the smaller gov- 
ernors is more easily influenced by superiors and in- 



56 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

cluced to conform to their requirements, and even their 
suggestions. All else equal, he will be the one more 
easily converted by persuasion. 

In 1839, with these ideas in my mind, and after I had 
discovered and published the triserial classification of the 
organs, I performed hundreds of experiments in mes- 
merism. The theory of Mesmer, and of all the experi- 
menters, was that the operator exerted his will and pro- 
jected into the brain of the subject a kind of magnetic 
or electric fluid, which put him to sleep and subdued his 
will. I am ashamed to say that I experimented several 
years with a full knowledge of the triserial classification 
before I discovered that the mesmerized person was 
mesmerized and controlled by his own conforming pro- 
pensities, and that magnetism, electricity, and my will 
had no effect whatever. Even after this discovery I 
could not understand why and how the conforming 
propensities produced sleep. After several more years 
of experimenting, I discovered that all the propensities 
are either impulsive or restrictive, and that the impul- 
sives increase the circulation to add to the strength, 
while the restrictives decrease the circulation to reduce 
the strength. 

Any cause that decreases the circulation in the brain 
tends to produce sleep (or " hypnotism," which is from 
the Greek, and signifies sleep). When the blood has left 
the brain of the subject sufficiently to produce some de- 
gree of sleep, he can be made to dream on any subject 
suggested to him. He is ready to conform to the operator 
to a degree that is wonderful. His whole mind and body 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 57 

are under the control of his conforming propensities. 
There is nothing so ridiculous or so humiliating that he 
will not do it. He is a conform-maniac. His mania does 
not essentially differ from other kinds of monomania, ex- 
cepting in the fact that it is conforming. The operator 
can control his consciousness as well as his conduct. If 
told that the extraction of a tooth will not produce pain, 
it will not, for the reason that his consciousness is con- 
trolled by his conformers, and they are excited and con- 
trolled by the language of his operator. 

Why cannot every one be mesmerized ? The suscep- 
tibility to mesmerism is like a predisposition to a par- 
ticular disease, — consumption, for example. A person 
may have the conforming organs large, yet be incapable 
of being mesmerized. Those who are most easily affected 
not only have the conformers excitable, but they have a 
weakness and excitability of the heart, so that the circu- 
lation is easily checked. Some persons can put them- 
selves into the trance by their own imaginations. The 
spiritists have often done so. 

In some cases the trance assumes the form of a disease. 
It is then termed catalepsy. Hallucination is a kind of 
semi-trance to which some people are subject. They 
dream while awake that they see things that do not 
really exist. Shakespeare represents Macbeth and Ham- 
let as being affected in this manner. Probably Sweden- 
borg dreamed when he believed that he conversed with 
spirits. Many of the modern spirit-mediums were sin- 
cere Christians, and really believed that they conversed 
with their deceased friends. I convinced hundreds of 



58 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

them of their error by mesmerizing people in their 
presence, and thus making writing and tipping and 
vision-seeing mediums. 

If any one desires to ascertain whether he can be 
mesmerized, it is only necessary for him to conform to 
the requirements of the operator, by placing himself in 
a proper position and being willing, conformable, and 
serious. Some persons cannot do this without exciting 
their conforming propensities to such a degree that if the 
operator asserts, " You cannot open your eyes," they 
cannot. Why? Because the conforming propensities 
overcome all opposition and rule the will. In other 
words, the will of the subject is to conform to the ex- 
pressed wishes of the operator. 

One of the latest and most interesting discoveries 
made by physiologists is the fact that there are two sets 
of nerves that accompany the arteries to modify the 
circulation. One set, when stimulated by electricity, 
increase the circulation, and the other set when stim- 
ulated moderate the circulation. A reasonable theory is 
that there is one set of inhibitory nerves that have for 
their special office to inhibit or moderate the circulation 
to produce ordinary sleep. These are branches of the 
great sympathetic. They are independent of the brain, 
and antagonistic to its functions. But besides these 
there are two sets of nerves that vary the circulation to 
bring it into harmony with the condition of the mind. 
One set conducts the influences of the impulsives to the 
heart and arteries to increase the circulation, and the 
other set conducts the influences of the restrictives to 



PHRENO- PHYSIOLOGY. 59 

moderate it. When a large restrictive — Cautiousness 
or Reverence — is greatly excited, the circulation is in- 
stantly checked, and the subject becomes somewhat cold 
and pale. When an impulsive is excited — Combative- 
ness or Hopefulness — the circulation is instantly in- 
creased. These opposite influences of the propensities 
upon the heart and arteries can only be transmitted 
through two different sets of nerves. But they cannot 
be the same nerves that produce ordinary sleep, and 
suspend the action of both the impulsives and the 
restrictives. The mesmeric sleep, or hypnotism, is 
produced by the restrictive organs of the brain itself 
moderating the circulation in the brain. This is proved 
by the fact that the mesmerized subject is never so much 
asleep that he will not do just what the operator requires 
of him. 

The mesmeric sleep, or hypnotism, has been con- 
founded with ordinary or genuine sleep. But it is a 
very different condition, and produced by a different 
mechanism. It may be termed an emotional and abnor- 
mal sleep. When a lady faints through fear, or a 
religious devotee falls and becomes unconscious in a 
revival meeting, we do not regard the condition of the 
subject as sleep or hypnotism.* Mesmeric sleep is of 
the same abnormal character. It is emotional sleep. 

* I have treated this subject at length in my larger work, entitled 
" The Mysteries of the Head and Heart." 



PHRENO- PHYSIOLOGY 



SECTION XIII. 

ALCOHOLISM. 

Alcohol poisons and paralyzes the restrictive and 
moral propensities, and lets loose the impulsive passions 
to act without restraint. It also poisons and paralyzes 
the inhibitory or restrictive nerves that moderate the 
circulation of the blood. When a person is half intoxi- 
cated, his face becomes red, and his whole body warmer 
than usual. He becomes less secretive and less cautious, 
less modest and respectful, and less scrupulous. He is 
more contentious, more boastful, more self-confident and 
venturesome, and more hilarious. If he drinks more, 
his nerves of voluntary motion become paralyzed ; next, 
his nerves of sensation ; and, finally, his brain is para- 
lyzed. He is stupid and insensible. 

When he recovers his condition is the reverse of that 
which the alcohol first produced. The impulsives are 
exhausted and subside, and the restrictives take control 
and depress all the powers of body and mind. His face 
is pallid; his limbs are cold and tremulous; his mind 
is gloomy, fearful, and suspicious. In extreme cases he 
sees horrid visions of monsters or assassins. 

In mesmerism only the mild conforming propensities 
are excited, but alcohol excites at first all the impulsives 



PHKENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 61 

and then all the restrictives, especially Cautiousness 
and Secretiveness, which fill the mind with terror and 
suspicion. 

These two contrasted states of mind furnish a perfect 
illustration of the difference between the impulsive and 
restrictive propensities. 

There are two facts which have been revealed within 
a few years by science that have a very important bear- 
ing upon the subject of alcoholism. One is that alcohol 
is not an extract from the grain or the fruit, but is pro- 
duced by a minute organic being that eats the sugar in 
them. When this is understood we perceive why alco- 
hol is a poison, though the fruit and grain are nutritious 
and wholesome. Another fact is that alcohol does not 
really stimulate at all, though it seems to do so. It 
paralyzes the inhibitory nerves that restrain and limit 
the circulation, and thus causes the circulation to increase. 
The inebriate is therefore stimulated by his own blood, 
and not by the alcohol. That alcoholism is a disease 
there can be no doubt, but the precise nature of the 
disease is not generally understood. It is not an insane 
love of alcohol, but an insane desire to get rid of the 
mental distress which succeeds the use of the alcohol. 
Its first effects on the mind are pleasurable and exalting, 
for the reason that it excites the impulsives. This feel- 
ing is succeeded by an unhappy and gloomy state of 
mind, caused not merely by depression of the impulsives, 
but by an insane and aggressive state of the excited re- 
strictives, which produces positive misery. Sick people 
and those who have been bled almost to death may be 

6 



62 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

depressed in body aud passive in mind, but they do not 
suffer any mental pain. The inebriate is not only de- 
pressed, but he is annoyed and distressed by unhappy 
thoughts and painful feelings. In extreme cases he 
thinks of suicide as a relief. He is jealous and sus- 
picious of his friends. His imagination is full of un- 
pleasant images. He is insanely anxious without any 
apparent or reasonable cause. Alcohol will relieve him 
temporarily from these horrid thoughts. If he could 
take some medicine that would relieve his mind, he 
could easily overcome the desire for alcohol. The taste 
or smell of the liquor gives him no pleasure. But alco- 
hol paralyzes the restrictives and excites the impulsives, 
and thus relieves him. 

I recollect that about fifty years ago there was a Dr. 
Chambers who went through the country curing alcohol- 
ism by lecturing and giving his own experience. He 
had been a drunkard, and his wife put tartrate of anti- 
mony into his brandy-bottle, which not only made him 
sick, but made the very smell of alcohol disgusting to 
him for a long time. Being a good and resolute man, 
he availed himself of this method of curing himself of 
his drunken habits, and recommended the same method 
to others. 

The method lately introduced by Dr. Keeley seems to 
be an improvement upon the Chambers cure. It is 
found that after rendering the alcohol disgusting, the 
mental distress is prevented by injecting into the blood- 
vessels a stimulating medicine several times a day, and 
thus keeping up the impulsive forces, and preventing 



PHKENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 63 

the dominance of the restrictives. When this is done 
for a sufficient time, the normal condition of the consti- 
tution is restored. 

Dr. Keeley deserves great credit and the gratitude of 
all the world for his sagacity and enterprise. But surely 
the time will come when no young man of common 
sense will conduct himself in such a manner as to need 
the services of Dr. Keeley or any of his pupils. 



64 PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 



SECTION XIV. 

MIND-CUKES AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 

In all ages and nations diseases have been apparently 
cured by impressions made upon the mind. The prob- 
ability is that in a very large majority of these cases 
there was no real bodily disease. But there was what 
may properly be termed an insane idea in the mind of 
the patient that he was the subject of a disease. This 
idea being removed by the mind-doctor exciting his 
conforming propensities, the cure follows so immediately 
that it seems miraculous. Physicians who have exten- 
sive practice are familiar with these cases. They often 
cure their patients with what they term " expectant med- 
icine," — that is, something that produces the desira- 
ble impression on the mind of the sufferer. It often 
happens that the regular physician fails to manage one 
of these cases shrewdly and skilfully ; then a mind- 
doctor comes in and does something, or uses some .pre- 
tended medicine, and astonishes the whole neighborhood 
by suddenly curing the patient. Sometimes the cure is 
effected by prayer, sometimes by quack medicine, and 
sometimes by a charm or by a relic of a saint. The 
public generally have no conception of the number of 
supposed diseases that are merely imaginary. A mes- 



1 



PHEENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 65 

rnerized person can be impressed with the belief that he 
is lame, or rheumatic, and not be able to rid himself of 
the " disease" for a week or more. Great numbers of 
people mesmerize themselves unintentionally, and believe 
for months that they have a disease, which really does 
not exist out of their own minds. 

No form of mind-cure has ever been practised which 
is more shameless and unscrupulous than that lately 
introduced under the name of " Christian Science." It 
is neither sanctioned by Christianity nor science. Its 
advocates pretend to cure by the silent influence of the 
mind-doctor over the patient. The real truth is that 
one mind never influences another without words or 
gestures, as these impostors pretend. They occasionally 
appear to cure, but it is done by making impressions, by 
words or manner, upon the conforming minds of the 
credulous patients, and thus causing the patients to cure 
themselves by the working of their own minds. 



6* 



PHRENO-PHYSIOLOGY. 



HUMAN NATURE: 



TEE EYOLUTIOISr OF MIND AND ITS 

INSTRUMENTS. 



BY 

J. STANLEY GRIMES, 

AUTHOR OF " PROBLEMS OF CREATION" AND " MYSTERIES OF THE HEAD AND HEART." 



PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1893. 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



027 324 929 1 



